Processing

A brief visit to my hometown after 9 months.

 I just got home from an overnight trip to Corning. It was my first time back since last February and all the drama surrounding Mom's passing. The reason for the trip was the first birthday party for my nephew and his wife's daughter, little Nora. She is a sweet little nugget!

Little Nora

In chatting with my nephew, he told me they were expecting another daughter in May. He was positively giddy with excitement. He explained that they had a very hard time conceiving Nora (they are both 40ish) so are delighted that another baby is now on the way. 

All six of my siblings were there so I got to say hello, chatted briefly with all of them, and many other nieces and nephews as well. I mostly went on this trip to hang with Theresa and Carol and their families as I am closest to them. The other siblings made no effort to spend any more time together which was just fine with me. After the party, Theresa, Bruce, and I went to Carol and Clive's home and played games and drank wine! It was a fun night as Carol's four kids (18 - 26) were a riot. 

The Thanksgiving snow is not melting as temperatures
are staying in the below freezing range.

On my drive home the next day I had a lot of feelings which I had a hard time even naming. I could not get to sleep until 4am as my mind was just - processing. Carol called this morning and we talked things over, coming to the similar conclusions about our family. 

A vibrant sunset.

I had some other processing to do in the kitchen. I had a turkey to deconstruct and put all the meat in containers for the fridge and freezer. I went a little overboard on produce last week so I had a huge pineapple to core, cut and freeze for smoothies, some avocados to turn into guacamole, and a huge knob of ginger to prep for the week. The indoor salad garden was planted 5 days ago and arugula and beet greens have already sprouted. I hope to eat somewhat healthily as I navigate the holiday month  ahead.

I finally went out and bought a single stage snow blower for the winter. I have shoveled the snow myself for most of the 28 years I've lived here, but I'm guessing my back will eventually give out, and I want to avoid that injury. I really was not impressed with retailers (Home Depot, Lowe's, Ace) who provide almost no help with this purchases. I finally got 4 different workers at Lowe's to assist in locating the item, removing item from a high shelf, checking out, and finally lifting it into my car. When I got it home, I had to assemble it which I was not really interested in. The garage also needed to be cleaned and reorganized to fit the new equipment into a practical space. I eventually got the job done and I'm waiting for snow to justify the day I spent on this thing. 

A walk around the lake put me back in a good mood!

It is supposed to snow all day Thursday so I just might get to use the snow blower. In the meantime, the temperatures have descended into full winter sub zero territory. The Thanksgiving snow is still on the ground!

Comments

  1. MargaretDecember 4, 2024 at 9:30 PM

    I'm not even sure what a snowblower looks like! Are they heavy? Families are "interesting," aren't they? Sometimes it's hard to believe that we share blood. I'm glad you made the best of your get together and yes, Little Nora is precious!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Maureen MDecember 4, 2024 at 11:02 PM

    Heavier than my lawn mower! I got a small one because we don't get as much snow anymore, but when a storm does hit we tend to get over a foot.

    ReplyDelete

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